


clean my wounds

by a_nybodys



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Stream of Consciousness, Team as Family, i needed closure on that, no capitalization, not a romance thing i assure you, zuko meets li the little boy from zuko alone again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 21:38:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8506513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_nybodys/pseuds/a_nybodys
Summary: a little girl is crying for her mama and zuko doesn't know what to make of her. toph helps.





	

a little girl was crying. one small, chubby hand was wrapped tightly around the arm of a miniature toy soldier and the other wiped furiously at her eyes.

  
"mama! ma-"

  
zuko couldnt look away. there was something about the child, her terrified expression, her red, puffy eyes, the loss of a mother so painfully clear in her very being, that made his chest tight and hollow and _painful_ -

  
_so painful, azula's_ _taunts, his mother's haunting farewell, his father's looks of disdain, disappointment, displeasure-_

  
from his side, toph grabs his sleeve.  
"let's help her find her mom, yeah?"

  
zuko nods and walks over to the child, nearly tripping over his robes in the crowded, dusty market. three years into being firelord and he still feels out-of-place, clumsy and clunky, as if azula or ozai would show up and rip the hairpiece from his topknot, laughing in his face, _'you really thought you could ever be happy, ever deserves happiness-'_

  
he's been having nightmares.

  
"are you looking for your mama?" toph's voice sounds from his right side as she kneels to the girl's height.

  
"ye-hes i lo- i lost her and- and li and i don't know where they are and-"

  
"well we're gonna help you find them, aren't we, zuko?"

  
"uh- yeah, yes of course." zuko replies, mentally smacking himself as an inner voice sounding far too azula-like for his own comfort berates him for his awkward words.

  
_'a firelord should not stumble or stutter or-'_

  
"come on, spitfire." toph mutters teasingly towards his shoulder, elbowing him in the ribs as she reaches a calloused hand out to the tiny earth kingdom girl, shes wearing a green pair of pants and the bow tied lovingly in her hair matches, zuko realizes belatedly. the girls grabs toph's hand timidly, a stark opposite to the hand still holding her toy soldier with a death grip.

  
"what's your mama's name?" zuko asks the girl who starts and looks up at him, distrustful and scared all at once. she sees the scar-her big brown eyes look so familiar- and her bottom lip quivers and he _breaths in, breaths out-_

  
_'don't look at it, don't look at me, it's disgusting, i'm disgusting-'_

  
"it's alright, girlie, you can talk to zuko, he doesn't bite. he's certainly not as tough or as scary as he looks. i've caught him feeding the turtleducks when he thought no one was looking." toph breaks the tension easily, leaning down to whisper into the girl's ear as if sharing something top secret, poking her stomach on the word turtle and ruffling her hair on the word ducks.

  
the girls giggles and zuko _breaths_.

  
"if it helps, my name is toph and this grouch's name is zuko."

  
"my name is lan, and my mama's name is-"

  
"lan! lan! oh thank the spirits, there you are!"

  
a breathless voice sounds from behind the three of them and two pairs of footsteps run up to them. zuko turns to see who-

  
a boy and his mother. the mother was pregnant the last time he saw her. the boy had gotten older and the gaps in his teeth had filled in-  
'i hate you i never want to see you again'- but his hair was still unruly and his eyes were just as wide as the day they met in that small, dusty town miles and miles away from any major cities or roads.

  
zuko watched as the mother embraced her daughter, tears streaming down both of their faces now, and he watched as the boy looked at his face

  
-at his scar-

  
and realization swept over the boy's face as quick as a cloud's shadow. zuko turned away. he couldn't let the woman see who it was that helped her daughter, couldn't disappoint her and her family again.

  
the mother was thanking toph profusely, while toph brushed off the thanks as easily as brushing knees free of dirt after kneeling too long on the ground. zuko could tell that toph knew something was wrong with him, as her speech was far less colorful and personable than usual.  
toph grabbed his elbow and turned to throw one last smile at the family before, all at once, zuko could feel a small pair of arms wrap around his leg, shocking him into turning around and looking straight down into the brown, kind eyes of lan.

  
"thank you very much, mister zuko and miss toph." the girl recites, as if the gratitudes were practiced often. lan goes to give toph a hug as well as zuko looks up and directly into the shocked face of the middle-aged woman, who lan runs back to.

  
zuko stands up, brushing his-

  
not his, never his

  
-robes off and gives the two, mother and son, a small smile.  
walking off back down the dirt road of the marketplace, arm-in-arm with toph beifong, towards the group of friends- no, family- he's made all on his own, he feels better about himself than he has in a long, long time.

  
he may not be healed and he may never be, but he has people who will cover his wound, wrap it in clean bandages like his uncle had when he was 13 _and angry and burned and scorned-_

  
and he will be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> so i needed closure on the whole li thing bcus it hurt my soul deeply. i'm sorry this kinda jumps around a lot, i'm not a very good writer.


End file.
